Although patient stratification at the level of individual pathways failed to consistently demonstrate significant differences in clinical outcome, patient stratification by oncogenic pathway combinations (e.g. high proliferation/high NF-κB vs. low proliferation/low NF-κB) showed reproducible and significant survival differences in multiple independent patient cohorts, suggesting a critical role for pathway combinations in influencing GC clinical behavior. The gene discussed is NFKB1; the disease is gastric cancer.